Willy Roessler

This article deals with the unionist and resistance fighter Willy Rößler; on fencing see Willi Rößler .

Willy Rößler (born October 3, 1884 in Halle (Saale) ; † October 21, 1959 in Bad Soden am Taunus ) was a German trade union official and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.

Life

Willy Rößler was the son of a cab driver. He grew up in a poor family in the northern part of Halle. The family later moved to the village of Giebichenstein , where he attended elementary school for eight years. After graduating from school, Rößler completed a four-year apprenticeship as a moulder . In 1902 Rößler became a member of the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV). In 1903 he joined the SPD , for which he soon took over functions. After completing his apprenticeship, Rößler went on a journey and worked in various metalworking companies in Germany and Latvia .

In 1910 Rößler returned to Halle from his wanderings. From 1911 to 1913 he was an authorized representative of the DMV in Aschersleben . From mid-1916, Willy Rößler was deployed several times as a soldier at the front in World War I. In 1917 he joined the USPD , where opponents of the war gathered. In the course of the November Revolution, Rößler was elected the salaried managing director (later authorized representative) of the Halle district administration of the DMV in December 1918. In 1921 he also rose to head the entire DMV district of Halle. With this he was at the head of a comparatively large association district until the unions were broken up on May 2, 1933. In the autumn of 1922 he rejoined the SPD . In 1931 he joined the republic protection organization Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold .

As part of the takeover of the Nazis Roessler gave birth on May 2, 1933 on the occasion of breaking the free trade union organizations from his duties as DMV district head. Rößler initially received unemployment benefit. He moved to Leipzig , where some close political friends and acquaintances lived of him. As early as mid-1933, Rößler was involved in union resistance against the Nazi regime. Together with Alwin Brandes , Richard Teichgräber , Max Urich and Heinrich Schliestedt , Rößler was one of the most important trade union resistance fighters who built up a comparatively large illegal network of metal workers all over Germany. With Richard Teichgräber, Rößler coordinated the illegal trade union work primarily on the territory of today's Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony .

Rößler took on a job as a representative in order to finance his livelihood and to ensure an innocent trip to his contacts in the illegal DMV network. He also maintained contact abroad and coordinated the smuggling of illegal magazines into the Reich. On February 4, 1935, the Gestapo arrested Willy Rößler. He spent several months in custody in Leipzig. He was later taken into " protective custody ". On September 13, 1935, the Nazi persecutors transferred him to the Sachsenburg concentration camp . From February 10, 1936, he was again in custody. This time he was taken to the Chemnitz police prison, where he says he was severely mistreated during interrogation. From the point of view of the Gestapo, Roessler was the head of the illegal trade union organization of metal workers in Central Germany. The Gestapo then took him to the Berlin-Moabit remand prison to prepare for criminal proceedings . On October 6, 1937, the People's Court sentenced him to three and a half years imprisonment and deprivation of his civil rights for two years. He served the term in prison in Zwickau . After the end of the regular term of imprisonment, Rößler was taken into “protective custody” again. On September 27, 1938, the Gestapo transferred Rößler to the Buchenwald concentration camp (prisoner number: 2829), where he had to do heavy prison labor for years. On July 2, 1941, the Nazi persecutors transferred him to the Dachau concentration camp (prisoner number: 26607). There Rößler was liberated by the US Army on April 29, 1945.

From June 1945 Rößler lived in Halle again. He took an active part in the establishment of the unions in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) within the framework of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB). In this connection he led hard arguments with communists . Rößler took over the function of the SPD district party secretary in Halle. Despite violent conflicts and reprisals, Roessler initially remained in the SED , which he had entered in 1946 with a certain idealism. Soon afterwards he was appointed labor judge for the Halle-Saale district. In this context he tried to defend himself against the influence of the SED and the Soviet occupying power in 1947/48. That is why he was expelled from the SED in 1948. He and his wife Helene Rößler feared they would be arrested.

Together with his wife, Rößler fled with the help of Alwin Brandes via West Berlin to the municipality of Rummenohl near Hagen . In Hagen, Willy Rößler became the full-time secretary of the IG Metall district management. In October 1949, Rößler was a delegate at the founding congress of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB). Roessler died of a heart attack during a stay at a spa.

literature

• Stefan Heinz , Jürgen Taege: Willy Rößler (1884–1959) , In: Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz (Hrsg.): Functionaries of the German Metalworkers' Association in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration , vol. 1). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-059-2 , pp. 75-102.
• Beatrix Herlemann : "We stayed what we always were, Social Democrats". The resistance behavior of the SPD in the party district of Magdeburg-Anhalt against National Socialism 1930–1945 (= studies on state history). Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2001, ISBN 3-89812-108-9 .